Croatia on Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the peaceful reintegration of the Danube River Region.
The reintegration was a successful political process, with the personal involvement of then-president Franjo Tuđman. It brought Croatia integrity in extremely important and complex political circumstances. The peaceful integration was a battle won by reason, not weapons.
The reintegration process was launched on 15 January 1996, when the UN Security Council established the UNTAES, and completed 25 years ago, on 15 January 1998, when the occupied parts of Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties were returned into Croatia’s constitutional and legal order, making them a part of territorial, monetary and legal continuity of then fully sovereign and unified Croatia.
The peaceful reintegration of the Danube River Region was one of the most successful UN-led peace operations, which marked Croatia’s victory in the Homeland War and freed the last remaining occupied areas peacefully and with no casualties.
Today, Croatia is a member state of the UN, NATO and EU – global geopolitical alliances that strive to resolve conflicts through reason rather than with weapons. It is the only member state with such personal experience.
Arriving on the Peace Train in Vukovar on 8 June 1997, then-president Franjo Tuđman uttered his famous words: “A victor that doesn’t know how to forgive is sowing the seeds of new evil. The Croatian people don’t want that, nor have they ever wanted it.”
Croatia-Serbia relations are still burdened by memories and traumas of war that have to be healed through honest cooperation and open dialogue, and by resolving outstanding issues in a positive atmosphere and cooperation based on democratic and solid foundation of the rule of law that the EU is built on.
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